wowwikifandomcom-20200223-history
Alterac Valley
thumb|The Alterac Valley Long ago, before the First War, the warlock Gul'dan exiled a clan of orcs called the Frostwolf Clan to a hidden valley deep in the heart of the Alterac Mountains. It is here in the valley's southern reaches that the Frostwolves eked out a living until the coming of Thrall. After Thrall's triumphant uniting of the clans, the Frostwolves, now led by the Orc Shaman Drek'Thar, chose to remain in the valley they had for so long called their home. In recent times, however, the relative peace of the Frostwolves has been challenged by the arrival of the Dwarven Stormpike Expedition. The Stormpikes have set up residence in the valley to search for natural resources and ancient relics. Despite their intentions, the Dwarven presence has sparked heated conflict with the Frostwolf Orcs to the south, who have vowed to drive the interlopers from their lands. Characteristics Zone Name Faction Races Level Range Location Alterac Valley Alliance Horde Dwarf Orc 51-60 Between Hillsbrad Foothills and Alterac Mountains = Overview = In Alterac Valley, your goal is to push your way to the other faction's base, and kill the enemy General. Along the way, you have to deal with Bunkers, Towers, and several groups of NPCs. Each faction can capture the five Graveyards that are arranged through the valley to gain control of an area and a resurrection point. There can be up to 40 players on each side, and the minimum level requirement is 51. The match can be completed in less than half an hour if the teams are unbalanced, but it usually lasts several hours. Entry to the Valley The official entry to the valley is in northern Hillsbrad. The Alliance entrance is due north of Southshore and the Horde entrance is north-east of Tarren Mill. Like any battleground, you can also enter through a Battlemaster in any capital city. NPC Officers Each side in the Valley has one General, one Captain, four Commanders, and six Lieutenants (also see Blizzard's Alterac Officers page) The Generals, Vanndar Stormpike and Drek'Thar, stay inside their faction fortresses at the far north and south ends of the map. When a general is killed, the match is over. Generals are tough, raid-level bosses, and typically require coordinated tanking and DPS to take down. They cannot be trained out of their fortresses and will reset if any attempt to train them is made. Generals are guarded by several Marshals (Alliance) or Warmasters (Horde), which are also tough bosses which require coordinated tanking and DPS, and can be pulled independently by skilled players. The number of Marshals or Warmasters is increased if the towers of the enemy faction are destroyed, and decreased if towers of the friendly faction are destroyed. With there being eight towers total on the map, it is entirely possible to have eight Marshals or Warmasters guarding your General, if you keep your own towers up and destroy all of the enemies. The Captains, Balinda Stonehearth and Galvangar, stay inside the more central bunkers of Stonehearth Outpost and Iceblood Garrison. As long as these captains are alive, they will periodically grant a 20% size, DPS, and health buff to all members of their faction. They are fairly tough bosses that can be taken down by a skilled 5-man group. The Commanders occupy the towers and patrol the graveyards of their faction. They are moderately tough elites. If all Commanders are taken down, certain of their faction NPCs will stop respawning. The Lieutenants patrol the roads and graveyards of their faction. They are fairly weak elites that provide a modest buff to members of their faction that are near them. Note that Alterac Valley is not level-banded like Warsong Gulch and Arathi Basin. In addition, both factions have a number of non-elite NPCs that assist their side. These NPCs spawn at all graveyards and towers, and a small number of road patrols. When a graveyard is captured by a faction, the NPC guards for the graveyard spawn immediately. NPC players in AV can be buffed, healed, bandaged, and many other spell effects apply to them like paladin auras or the AoE buff of Battle Standards. In Patch 1.11, the number of NPCs was severely reduced. On some servers, this has led to a strategy that is usually called "the race". In this strategy, both sides rush the graveyard nearest the enemy base, quickly clear the two bunkers in the base, pull the Marshalls, and then pull the General. This strategy leads to a much faster reputation gain for both factions, regardless of the outcome. Each side may also kill the opposing captain and claim a mine or easy Graveyard "on the way", but the goal is still to "rush the General". = Personal Quests = There are a number of quests that can be completed in Alterac Valley for reputation and rewards. They are broadly identical for Horde and Alliance, so they will be described in general terms here. These quests provide permanent rewards to a character, unlike the "Battle Quests" described below. For specific faction details, see Alterac Valley Alliance Quests and Alterac Valley Horde Quests. * Alterac Valley Trinket quest: A quest-giver outside the instance gives a quest to retrieve a banner from a cave. The caves are located in the far north and south ends of the valley. The reward for this quest is a trinket that provides frost resistance, health regeneration, and the ability to portal back to your faction's fortress from anywhere in the Valley. The trinket is upgraded for free as you gain reputation with your Alterac Valley faction, ultimately reaching epic status. "Trinketing back to base" is a standard last-ditch defensive strategy, and you will be expected to have completed this quest and be carrying your trinket. * The Battle for Alterac quest: A quest-giver outside the instance gives a quest that is completed by winning a match. You must have the quest and be inside the instance when the enemy General is killed to complete the quest. The rewards for this quest are quite desirable blues, including the Ice Barbed Spear, Cold Forged Hammer, and others. * Capture a Mine quest: A quest-giver outside the instance gives a quest to capture a mine. This quest is intended largely to teach you where the mine is, since you may be repeating the Mine Supplies quest many times. = Battle Quests = In addition to the personal quests, there are a number of objectives that can be completed during a battle to provide a bonus to a faction. Many of these quests provide reputation points and all are worth doing whenever your side can complete them. * Unit Upgrades quest: The blacksmith in each fortress will accept Armor Scraps, which are dropped by players of the opposite faction when they are killed. The quest requires 20 scraps and can be completed as many times as you like. Each turn-in grants 1 reputation point to ALL members of the faction in the battleground, and 10 reputation points with Ironforge or Orgrimmar to the character completing the quest. When this quest has been completed enough times, the General will start to periodically provide a damage buff to all members of his faction; it starts at 10% and proceeds up to 30% as more quests are completed. In addition, once enough scraps are retrieved, a player with Honorable or higher reputation can direct the smith to upgrade all of your faction's NPCs. * Mine Supplies quest: There is a mine located near each of the fortresses. The mine is initially under the control of hostile NPCs, but could be handled by a pair of well-geared 60s. A minor elite resides deep inside each mine; when he is killed, the mine comes under the control of your faction and is quickly filled with friendly NPCs. Once the mine is under your faction's control, the Quartermaster inside your fortress will start to collect supplies. When enough supplies have been gathered, a player with Honorable or higher reputation can direct the Quartermaster to launch a ground assault, which will spawn a group of elite NPCs that will move forward through the zone attacking enemy players and NPCs. * Cavalry quest: A cavalry stables is located near both fortresses. By using a tool provided by the stablemaster, characters can tame rams or wolves and return them to the stable. By killing the opposing faction's wild mounts, players can gather pelts. When enough tame animals and pelts are available, a character with Honorable or higher reputation can direct the stablemaster to launch a cavalry assault. A player with high reputation (Revered?) can direct the cavalry to attack further by clicking on the cavalry directly. * Ultimate Unit quest: Arch Druid Renferal and Primalist Thurloga, located inside the faction fortresses, will accept Storm Crystals or Stormpike Soldier's Blood, which are dropped by fallen characters of the opposite faction. When enough of these items are turned in, the Druid or Primalist will move through the valley, accompanied by a group of elite guards, until they reach the Field of Strife. They will then start a summoning ritual, which requires ten players to click on their summoning circle. When this summoning is complete, Ivus the Forest Lord or Lokholar the Ice Lord will be summoned. These are tough raid-level bosses. They will spend some time on the Field of Strife killing whatever they see, and will then start to move towards the enemy base. These bosses are, unfortunately, plagued by evade bugs and are fairly simply to train into areas where they can easily be killed. The standard Horde strategy is to train Ivus to the entry tunnel and to kill him there. But if they are guarded carefully, they can easily turn the battle and end the match. * Aerial Assault quest: Wing Commander NPCs are held inside the enemy faction's base and towers. A friendly character can interact with these NPCs to free them, which will cause them to start running back towards their base. If the wing commanders make it back to their base, they will turn into a quest giver that provides a repeatable quest to turn in items that are dropped by players of the enemy faction (various sorts of meat for the Horde, and medals for the Alliance). If enough of these quests are completed, the Wing Commander will grant a quest that allows a player to summon a tough flying unit that will hover over an enemy area and drop bombs with a tough AoE knockback. = Standard Battle Strategy = A battle in Alterac Valley tends to follow a standard pattern: * Initial Phase: Both factions attempt to gain control of the enemy chokepoint to prevent access to the Field of Strife. For the Alliance, this means capturing Iceblood Graveyard and destroying Iceblood Tower. For the Horde, this means capturing Stonehearth Graveyard and destroying Stonehearth Bunker. Snowfall Graveyard is frequently ceded to the Alliance since it is a distraction to the Horde rushing from Iceblood to Stonehearth. * Consolidation and Advance: Typically one faction will control the chokepoint and capture the graveyard there. That faction will then attempt to push onwards to the graveyard nearest the enemy base (Stormpike or Frostwolf). The defending faction will attempt to recover their graveyard and delay the advance. ** Note that if a race is underway, both graveyards could be captured and the two factions could be pushing forward simultaneously. * Fortress Assault: Once a faction has captured the graveyard outside the enemy fortress, they will attempt to push into the fortress. For the Alliance, this means pushing through a twisty series of ramps to the upper courtyard, where the two Frostwolf towers and the Frostwolf Relief Hut are located. The the Horde, this means fighting across the bridge and into the Dun Baldar Bunkers located north and south of the main road, and then to the Stormpike Aid Station located on the rear plaza. Defenders can use their trinkets to portal back to the main defensive area during this phase. * Fortress Capture and General Pull: Once the interior graveyard has been captured, it is very difficult for the defenders to stop an attack. The attackers will typically pull the marshalls defending the general one at a time, and then pull the general. Defenders may attempt to trinket in and disrupt the fight, or to mount a coordinated attack into their own base from the graveyard outside. Once the general is dead, the match is over. There are certainly variations on this pattern. The most important factor in the flow of a battle is control of the graveyards. A stealthy capture of a graveyard in the interior of the map while a heavy attack recovers a graveyard at the end of the map (for example, a stealth capture of Snowfall while the Horde recovers Frostwolf from Iceblood), can cause a sudden reversal of the entire match. (In this example, the Alliance would be forced to rez at Stonehearth, suddenly losing control of half the map). The use of cavalry or ground unit charges in coordination with an offensive or defensive push is another rich source of advanced strategies. = Reputation = As you fight in Alterac Valley, you earn reputation with either the Frostwolf Clan for Horde or the Stormpike Guard for Alliance. Higher ranks with your respective faction will allow you to purchase items from your faction's vendor. There are two vendors for each faction; one inside Alterac Valley and one outside in Hillsbrad Foothills. Worldofwarcraft.com has a complete list of Alterac Valley vendor rewards. Note that in Alterac Valley all reputation with the Frostwolf Clan and the Stormpike is shared amoungst all combatants, whether or not they are partied with you or not. However some turns in will give reputation with one of the four main primary factions. This faction is not shared. Stormpike/Frostwolf reputation is gained in the following ways: * Killing Enemy General (300 rep) * Killing Enemy Captain (125 rep) * Killing Enemy Lieutenants and Commanders (12 rep each) * Killing an Enemy Air Master (5 rep) * Killing any Enemy Guard (5 rep) *NOTE: This is capped through honored and does not give rep in exalted* * Killing an Enemy Player (1 rep), IF you are in the enemy player's threat list. This means that you must have damaged the enemy, buffed or healed a player that damaged the enemy, or debuffed the enemy. * Killing Ivus the Forest Lord or Lok'holar (125 rep) * Destroying an Enemy Tower (12 rep) * 1-time quests (first turnin of each repeatable, capture a tower/mine/graveyard, etc) (~100 rep each, varies) Repeatable reputation quests * Ram Hide/Frostwolf Hide (2 rep each) * Bringing a Frostwolf/Ram to your stable (1 rep each) * Armor Scraps (1 rep for 20 plus 10 Orgrimmar/Ironforge for the character) * Storm Crystals/Stormpike Blood (1 rep for 1 plus 10 Orgrimmar/Ironforge; 5 rep for 5 plus 50 Orgrimmar/Ironforge for the character) * Wind Riders ** Sildore/Guse (1 rep) ** Vipore/Jeztor (2 rep) ** Ichman/Mulverik (5 rep) At the end of the game, extra rep is gained for each of the following conditions: * Enemy Captain Killed (36 rep) * Allied Captain Still Alive (125 rep) * Enemy Towers Destroyed (24 rep each) * Enemy Lieutenants and Commanders killed (12 rep each) * Controlled Intact Tower (12 rep each) * Controlled Graveyards (12 rep each) * Controlled Mines (12 rep each) = See also: = * Alterac Valley info pages at the Official site. * Tips from the official site * Alterac Valley Map with Locations, NPCs and Quests. * Alterac Valley Mobs * Alterac Valley Buildings * Proud Aardvark's Alterac Valley Guide * Alterac Valley Strategy and Tactics. * Alterac Valley Guide for the Horde Category:World:Azeroth Category:Continent:Eastern Kingdoms Category:Zone:Alterac Mountains Category:Instances Category:Honor System Category:Battlegrounds Category:PvP Category:News Category:Added content